French authorities seem pretty convinced that Russia was looking to exploit the country’s political sensitivity towards all-things antisemitism. Meanwhile, Germany seems confused about what antisemitism even is. At national and European levels, domestic politics appear to be coming under pressure from a number of angles, and the farmers are — literally — at the gates.
Thankfully, the view from above is harmonious once again — and it only took 649 days to get there. Hungary at last approved Sweden’s entry into NATO, just in time for French President Emmanuel Macron to open the door to some kind of European troop presence in Ukraine. Välkommen till klubben!
For the Russian take, we speak to Mikhail Komin, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and EUobserver contributor. Later in the episode, we head out to the cool-kid streets of Berlin’s Neukölln district, where the people who brought you DiEM25 are gathering signatures to get on the ballot for June’s European elections. We talk to the aspiring party’s would-be Spitzenkandidat (lead candidate), Karin de Rigo, about what’s happened to the left and why she thinks her party can do better.
Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here and get us where your ears go for podcasts:
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Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!
PS: The clip of music used is by Dinos Bouzanis et al., performed live at Cafe Karanfil in Neukölln.
Correction #1: Due to a note-reading error while recording, we mistakenly called Palestinian filmmaker Basel Adra instead the name of the area he comes from — Masafer Yatta. We apologize for the hasty oversight.
Correction #2: Due to conflicting definitions of “party” and “movement,” it is important to distinguish the difference between MERA25 and DiEM25. The best way to do that is to let the groups speak for themselves, which are linked to above.
Clarification: The interview with Mikhail was recorded Monday, Feb. 26. We spoke to Karin on Tuesday, Feb. 27. Events and details may have changed between recording on Wednesday, Feb. 28, and when you listen to the episode.
As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. Facts matter.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com
Euroscopic S2E4: Hyperlocal meets supranational